And Breathe
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1823b. After Grace's freak out, Nora stays with her and helps her along until she's ready to head back to the Schuesters' house. - Sunshine Girls 2 series - 5TH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE, day 17b of 21.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!_

**_IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF_**_** GLEEKATHON!** \- Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!_

**This story is 'Additional scenes' for _Move &amp; Change_, a Sunshine Girls 2 series story originally posted on July 9th 2014.**

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**"And Breathe"  
Nora (AU!Beth)/Grace (OC)  
Sunshine Girls 2 series**

Grace wasn't ready to just leave and go back to Schue's house right away, and Nora didn't force her. When she'd be ready, she'd get her there, but until then, there was nothing to keep them from taking a moment to collect themselves, relax… breathe. Grace had stretched out to turn on the light near Nora's bed, where they sat. She looked around in silence, while Nora watched her.

There had to be so much going through her head right now. She'd just moved out of her home, or… no… she'd been kicked out, because her mother couldn't accept her. Everyone had been telling Nora that it wasn't her fault, that she shouldn't feel guilty, but then how could she not? But then she knew better, she did. Saying that it was all on her only made it sound as though Grace had had no say in the matter, that her feelings were only the effect of Nora's returned feelings, and she knew better than that now. She had looked into the other girl's eyes, and what she'd seen there was by no means trickery or a bewitched heart. Grace had a tender love for her, one of friendship, yes, as always, but beyond that she had proven a romantic one as well. And now because of her mother, this love had been threatened, or at least Grace had seen it that way, going by how she'd meant to respond tonight.

It was neither of their fault, Nora knew that now. They had done nothing wrong, and if she could get Grace to see that, too, then she might help get her girlfriend's mind at ease. She couldn't make it happen for her though. She couldn't just grab her by the shoulders and look her in the eyes and tell her to stop being afraid. No, the best thing she could do, the thing she _would_ do, would be to be there for her, in any way she could. Tonight, she had kept Grace from overreacting and doing something she would have regretted in the end. They wanted to be together, to lie together, yes, but Grace wouldn't it to happen that way, not their first time.

"You okay?" Nora asked her, stroking her cheek. Grace had breathed out, leaning into the touch. Nora wanted to offer to go with her back to Schue's house, to help her unpack and settle in, but then she knew the rule. Mrs. Mackenna had made it clear: she didn't want Nora to be there, or else she would come back on her agreement with Schuester and his wife. She might not have had control on the rest of the world, but where she did have it, she had exercised it. "You tell me when you want me to drive you over there, right?" she still had to ask.

"Not yet," Grace begged. "I've had a… crap day," she frowned, knowing it was putting it mildly. "I just want to be here with you a while longer." Nora gave her a smile, sitting up and tapping her lap. Grace had quietly laid herself down, putting her head in the offered lap. Nora brushed at the ginger hair with what she hoped to be a soothing touch.

"We can stay here as long as you want," she promised her. _So long as your mother doesn't send out the search dogs if she calls Schue's house and finds out you've been gone._ There was so much she wanted to ask her, but she didn't want to make her have to think about all of it more than she needed to. She was supposed to feel better, so she could go to Schue's home, her new home. Nora's questions could wait.

After a few minutes of neither of them saying a thing, with Nora tracing her fingers along Grace's hairline, and Grace holding to Nora's knee as one would hold a pillow, the blonde had looked down. She thought maybe Grace might have fallen asleep, or close to. Her hand stilled, and she got her answer when this stillness brought Grace to turn her head and look up at her.

"I thought you were asleep," she admitted.

"I was looking at your room," Grace revealed, which made Nora laugh.

"Why?" she asked. Grace turned on to her back, her head still in Nora's lap as she looked around.

"It's so different from your room at your mother's house."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Nora observed the room. "When I was younger, I'd try and make this one the same as at Mom's house, but we didn't always live here. I have my room in New York, too, and you saw that one, it started off like the other one here, too, when I'd stay in New York for long stretches, same as here, but then with school, and staying here more… My first room is the one at Mom's house, these other two, they're not the same," she shrugged.

"Three rooms…" Grace stared at the ceiling, and Nora closed her eyes. Here she was talking about all her homes, and there was Grace, with one home taken from her and traded in for one that wasn't really hers. Nora realized now maybe Grace's comment had not been so much about the differences between her rooms but about what Nora had, and what she now did and didn't have.

"It won't be like this forever," she vowed, leaning forward, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend's forehead, her cheek… Her cheek was wet, salty, and Nora moved about so she might lie down, too, next to Grace, who welcomed this turn, taking shelter in the open arms that closed around her and held her as she cried.

It would be a while longer before she could be brought back to Schuester's house. Nora said nothing. She let Grace cry and cling to her. It might not be the last time she cried over this, but she was letting it out, not keeping it in, and in the end, it would help her get through this, to move forward. That was what she needed, with all the love she felt for her, Nora would be there by her side to see her through.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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